A Matter of Instinct
by Lily8193
Summary: Stand alone side Story to Love at forced sight. If reading said story this comes before Chapter 11. After her sister got killed, the Princess of Mars gets sent to Venus to get "educated" in the ways of love. With opposite cultures clashing Rei has to decide what to follow: her heart or her upbringing. Rei/Minako, Yuri, lots of Lemon.


**A matter of instinct**

_You can love a Venusian every day of the week, _

_as often as you want, _

_but never love them._

Proverb from the Silver Millennium

Rei, crown princess and heir of Mars, was in trouble- deep, deeptrouble- and it was entirely _her _fault.

It had started two years ago, after her younger sister had been killed in one of the perpetual wars on her home planet. It had been a tragedy. No-one had wanted the young Princess's death. The Martian royal family was well liked, but resources were scarce, causing even minor conflict to turn into bloody fights.

So, after the girl had been hit by a stray arrow, Queen Mars swiftly decided to send her only remaining daughter away. Of course figuring out where to send her had been a lot more difficult. Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto were- among other things- too far away for her liking. She knew very well, that staying on Mercury would not be good for her daughter either. They were fighters, with fire in their soles, while Mercurians were thinkers and their entire cities were made of ice. Jupiter had been a possibility. It wasn't too far off, Rei would receive excellent combat training and could easily do her fire-readings there, but the Queen simply didn't like it there. The humidity alone usually was enough to drive her up a wall within minutes of arrival, not to mention the Jovians temper. That left only Venus and Earth's Moon. Sadly Queen Mars couldn't find a good excuse to sent her daughter to the Moon for a long period of time. She still had her pride and openly acknowledging that she couldn't protect her own heir went very much against that.

Because of that Mars Rei had been sent off to Venus to be "educated in the ways of love" as it was currently popular for children from royal or other wealthy families throughout the solar system.

Of course Rei hadn't been thrilled about the news of her departure, but she knew it was necessary. If she died Mars would be left without heir and while no-one except for maybe Queen Pluto knew what would happen in that case, it couldn't be good- and not just for herself.

Not a week later Rei arrived on Venus. The view from the landing space ship had been beautiful. The entire city surrounding the royal palace had been glowing in the light of the setting sun, and the palace had been illuminated gloriously. After a formal greeting from Queen Venus, the Princess was shown to her quarters and left alone to get situated.

An hour later she was done unpacking her belongings and idly lying on her bed. At home on Mars she would have been with her tutors for her morning lessons right now, but here the sun had already set._ It's gonna be hell getting used to the time difference_, she thought, just as someone knocked on her door.

When she opened her door she was greeted with the sight of a exuberant younger version of the Queen. Blonde, blue eyes, golden skin and extremely beautiful. As well as a servant holding a tray of what she would have called "breakfast for two" had it been a different time of day.

She had just opened her mouth to ask the other girl inside, but it was unnecessary, as the blonde had already slipped past her and motioned for the servant to set down his load on a small table by the dark window.

By the time the Princess had recovered enough to demand an explanation the servant was already gone and the blonde had sat down with a full plate in front of her.

"Well, aren't you gonna sit down and eat?" her visitor asked.

Rei looked at her, puzzled.

"What?" was all she managed to get out.

"Breakfast," came the matter-of-fact answer. "I don't know about you, but I'm starved. They made me wait for you to get settled in, before coming over."

When Rei only gaped at her, she shrugged her shoulder and started to eat.

By the time the Princess had managed to sit down, too, the stranger was already half way through her plate.

Rei took a tentative bite. The food was delicious, but still...

"Why are we having breakfast?"

The blonde giggled. "When was the last time you were on Venus? It's too hot during the day, so we get up once the sun has set."

The Martian took a relieved breath and finally started to dig in. That didn't just make sense, it also spared her a massive jet-leg.

"I know you're one of the venusian Princesses, I've seen you at the annual balls." The other girl smiled in acknowledgement at these words. "But why exactly are you here? Except for breakfast I mean."

"Oh," the other Princess seemed genuinely surprised, "Mother didn't tell you? I'm supposed to tell you about your schedule and... stuff..."

"And with 'stuff' you mean the uniquely venusian part of my education here?"

"Ah, yes," the girl seemed rather uncomfortable right now, "just how much have you been told about that?"

"Well," the Martian seemed to make an effort of turning into a tomato, "I've heard the rumours, so..."

The blonde seemed to have found a bit of courage somewhere and calmly explained: "Those rumours are vastly exaggerated. People tend to forget that Venus is the plane of all kinds of love, not just, you know, carnal love."

Rei was vastly relieved. "So I wont have to sleep with someone to, well, _learn_?"

"Eh, well," Rei's hopes fell, "it is a part of your curriculum..."

She let out a few colourful martian swears. "So there is no way around that?"

Princess Venus shook her head.

"Who?" was all Rei could ask.

"Well," she seemed to be highly uncomfortable again, "it has been decided that I should be your instructor in the ways of love, but..."

"No!" Princess Mars nearly yelled.

The other girl looked at her in puzzlement and also with some hurt pride.

"And why would you be so strongly against this?" she asked coolly.

"You're a woman!"

"Well, obviously," she deadpanned.

"So am I!" Rei yelled infuriated.

"That too is rather obvious. So?"

"So?" Rei was furious. What did this girl think? "So we can't!"

"Oh, right. You're martian," The Princess realized, the figurative light bulb going on over her head. "Your planet is the only one in our solar system where that would be a problem, but..."

The Martian didn't let her finish the sentence: "A problem?! A problem, you say? If we did that and anyone at home found out, I would lose all the respect my people have for me. Mars is already hard to rule, and that would make it impossible!"

"That is very unfortunate," the Venusian said with compassion, "but my Mother made it very clear, that you can either accept me as your tutor or go back home."

Rei's anger visibly deflated and she buried her face in her hands. "I can't go home. Mother sent me here."

"You know," Princess Venus tried to encourage her, "no one but your mother will know of this. And the people here, but they won't care. It's not unusual."

She took a deep breath. "I guess I'll just have to deal with it then." She smiled at the other Princess as way of apologizing for her outburst and received one in return.

"You said something about a schedule?"

The schedule, Rei found out, was not very extensive. The two of them were to meet with instructors nearly every day for a couple of hours, the subjects ranging from Politics, over cultural ed, to Mathematics and back, and had combat training twice a week. The other Princess would also teach what "love" meant on the different planets. That was, all planets except for Mars, because apparently Martians did not talk about it to anyone who was not one of them or "married" to one of them. That, too was a great mystery, as no-one knew when Martians considered themselves married or in some other form tied to each other and Rei had no intention of changing that.

For the next month they spent nearly every day together, meals, classes and their free time. Sometimes they even spent the night- or what was called night- together. Every time , Rei expected the other Princess to initiate some kind of closer contact, but nothing ever happened and when she tried to ask about it she was expertly shut off. That was, she thought, a bit frustrating, while she was also glad to have gotten some more time to get used to the idea of being with the other.

"Hey, Mars?" The two Princesses were lying on the martian's bed, doing virtually nothing, as they waited for dinnertime to come- in about 4 hours.

"Hm?" came the answer from the lightly dozing girl.

"We're friends, right?"

"Huh?" Rei sat up on her bed. _Where did that come from? _"Yeah, we're friends."

"Good. And you trust me, right?"

"Ah, yes, but why?" she asked, puzzled.

"Good. I would have liked to give you some more time, but Mother said to go ahead, so..."

"Go ahead with... oh." Rei gulped.

"There is no need to be afraid." The Venusian said, coming closer, while Rei backed away, until she hit the wall at the head-end of the bed with her shoulders. "We'll go very slowly, see?" With that the blonde leaned forward and brought their lips together. It was no more than a peck, but Rei jerked away and hit her head against the wall. Hard.

"Shit!" Once she stopped seeing stars, she was face-to-face with the girl now straddling her lap, her shoulder being gently, but surely pushed against the wall.

"Now, let's try that again, without any self-inflicted pain, shall we?"

The blonde leaned in, again, lips touched, and... Rei was off the bed in a heart-beat, having simply shoved the Venusian off of her. She was a _Martian_, God damn it and martians did not like feeling trapped, especially not by someone from another planet.

"Uff," the Venusian huffed, picking herself up. She was obviously not used to being rejected. _Twice_. "Listen, there are three ways, how this is gonna go. First option: You play nice, I play nice, we'll go very slowly and let you get used to it bit by bit. Second option: You go home. Third option: You don't wanna go home, but act like a cowardly jackass, so I tie you up and just go ahead, like my mother suggested. Your choice."

Rei sighed. She couldn't go home and being tied up was so not an option, which really left her with no choice at all.

She sighed again: "Ok, I'll play nice. But could I...? Would you... let me..? At first.. I mean..."

Apparently the blonde understood her stammering and nodded her head, just standing there, still next to the bed.

Rei gulped. It had been her idea, to initiate the contact herself, but she had no idea how to do it? Upon receiving a raised eyebrow, for her continuing inaction, she slowly stepped forward, until she was at arms length from the other girl. There she stopped again, before inching closer again. She gathered all of her courage, leaned in and gave the Venusian a clumsy peck on the lips.

Princess Venus rolled her eyes: "Really? I thought you were sixteen, not five. Do you martians always make a big fuss, before doing virtually nothing? "

_Ouch. _Rei blushed a bright scarlet. _How dare she? _It was one thing to mock her, although she really didn't like that either, but belittling her people was on an entirely different page. She'd show her, she'd...!

She didn't know how exactly it happened, but a few seconds later, she found herself in a fierce lip-lock with the venusian Princess, foregoing any kind of fight for dominance, instead simply plunging her tongue deep within the other's mouth. The girl would never say anything of the like again, she'd make sure of it.

But she soon found out that she was too inexperienced to beat the Venusian at her own game, when the blonde started to suck on her tongue just _so _andthen proceeded to give her the best kiss she could ever have imagined, until she thought her knees could give out any moment.

Once they parted for air, the blonde panting a lot less than herself, smiled: "That's better... at least for a beginner. I'm sure with a bit of practice you'll be a really good kisser."

And practice they did. Over the next few days Princess Venus made sure to stay close to Rei, kissing her whenever she least expected it and touching her whenever possible. She'd lean into her, whisper in her ear, brush their hands together when they were walking down a corridor, occasionally hug her, never anything big. Their kisses were the same, sweet and innocent, at least during the day. The evenings were an entirely different matter. Then the blonde would, as she put it, "teach her how to properly kiss", although Rei had trouble finding anything proper about it. Not that she cared much about that or anything else after a few minutes of these lessons.

Again Rei found herself to be rather content. Kissing the Venusian wasn't too bad- and not bad at all if you asked the repressed part of her mind that, which as long as Rei had any say in the matter, would never voice its opinion-, but again Queen Venus interfered.

Rei found herself once again sitting on her bed, with the Venusian straddling her lap, but this time thankfully without the wall in her back. They had been kissing for nearly 10 minutes already, and the Martian had trouble listening to the gentle rectifications her teacher would make every once in a while. The last week had taken it's toll on her and she found the repressed part of her mind- or body?- that greatly enjoyed all the attention she was getting, to grow steadily stronger. So, she couldn't get herself to object when one of the blonde's hands found it's way under her shirt and started to massage her lower back. When no objections came the second hand joined the first and after a few seconds they started their way up Rei's sides. Sadly their journey was short-lived, as they encountered a very unwanted obstacle of the Martians bindings several centimetres before reaching their goal.

Princess Venus broke their kiss and huffed indignantly. Having decided on the best course of action, now that she knew what she was dealing with, she grabbed the hem of the Martians shirt and pulled it upwards.

"Wha...?" Before Rei could completely wake from her daze, the blonde started to kiss, lick and nibble on her neck, only pausing to shed the unwanted garment. All further objections Rei could have had were instantly drowned out by a deep moan. She felt _good_. Really good. And, her hazy mind figured, something that felt this good couldn't possibly be bad, so she reached up and got rid of her offending bindings herself, earning an appreciative humm. She'd found out early on in their lessons that the Venusian would simply make that sound to tell her she did good, without stopping what they were doing. Disappointingly, the blonde did not reach for the newly uncovered flesh right away, but went back to caressing Rei's tender sides and back. The Martian couldn't fathom why in the world she'd do that. She wanted more, she didn't exactly know of what, but more! _Maybe...? _Rei blindly tried reciprocating the attention she was getting, but when she grabbed the material hindering her efforts, she was stopped by a firm "No!"

Finally the blonde raised her hands and started massaging Rei's firm breasts, and her groan of frustration turned into a pleasured moan. She was in heaven, when the Venusian took a breast in each hand and circled her rock hard nipples with her thumbs. Soon the Princess switched from kissing her neck back to her lips. The Martian was so far gone, the only objection she had when she was lowered on her back and the rest of her clothes were shed, was that the Venusian dared to stop her ministrations for even a moment. To her defence, she was a 16-year- old teenager, who had been teased for an entire week by not just any gorgeous woman, but by the utterly gorgeous Princess from the planet of love.

"Oh, God!" Rei moaned desperately.

The blondes hands and lips were everywhere. Stroking her legs, caressing her sides, teasing her breasts, kissing her lips, her neck, sucking on her nipples, and she could do nothing more than holding on to something, anything- hoping that at least a piece of her mind was among those things-, arching into the Princess's touch, bucking her hips in desperation and praying for some kind of release. Hearing her silent prayers, the blonde finally slipped a hand between her legs. No mastery skills were needed from there. Rei only needed a single touch to her clit before she exploded in searing heat, yelling her pleasure to everyone within earshot. She hardly even noticed when the Venusian plunged three fingers inside of her, to break her hymen in one go. The slight pain only made her buck her hips harder.

When Princess Mars finally regained her senses, she turned to the girl half-lying on her side next to her, head braced on an elbow and asked: "Why? Why did you stop me from undressing you?"

With a Cheshire smile the blonde answered: "Because this lesson was about receiving pleasure."

Rei furrowed her brows: "You can't tell me that left you cold!"

"Oh, of course it didn't," the blonde brushed her off, "but I'll just find me some company for the night later."

The Martian was deeply hurt. "Did I do that bad?" she asked hoarsely, facing the other way.

"Oh, no, no, no, you did good!" the other girl snuggled up to her, caressing her and laying gentle kisses wherever she could reach. "Shhh, shhh, shh," she hushed, "you really did good. You're tired now. I know you are. But after _this_, I'll need someone who can... how should I put it?... someone who can keep going for quite a while."

Rei contemplated for a moment. "You're right, I am tired. Tcheh, I can fight all day long if I have to, but this? Not a chance." They laughed together for a minute.

"You know, I'm glad you were so agreeable with this," the blonde said suddenly.

Princess Mars looked at her questioningly.

"Well, the way you acted up when I first kissed you, I was sure I would have to go back to my mothers suggestion."

Rei was thoroughly horrified, she could well remember the backhanded threat of being tied up.

"Don't ever!" the Venusian was left baffled by her sudden outburst. "Don't ever threaten a martian to tie them up or ask them to do the same to you for sex, ok? I may not tell you why, just _don't_!"

The blonde nodded in agreement and left soon after, without asking any more questions.

"What exactly did you say we were here for, Venus?" the fire Princess asked. After their first sexual encounter, she learned a lot both about giving as well as receiving pleasure. Now, two months later, she was well able to please the Venusian Princess and her stamina had increased quite a bit. Still, every once in a while, one of the lessons would be purely one-sided, which either left her wondering whom the other one was going to or thoroughly frustrated.

"We're taking a bath of course."

"Ah, of course," Rei agreed ironically, looking around. They were, indeed, sitting in one of Venus's many hot-springs. There were about 20 different pools, with at least 10 people in each one, but only half of those, as far as she could tell, were "taking a bath", either relaxing or talking to one another. The other half was currently engaged other "activities". One woman not too far away from them, for example, was currently practicing under-water fellatio on the man next to her, as far as Rei could tell. She had to be from either Mercury or Neptune, or be really good at holding her breath.

"But taking a bath is not all we're here for, right?" She asked. This was not their first excursion. All previous ones had started out innocently enough with going shopping or eating something, going sight-seeing,... but all ended with some kind of lesson, albeit not all of the sexual kind.

"No," the Venusian finally gave in. "But that will come later. For now, look around. I want you to tell me where all the people in this pond are from, and what you learned about their races, so far from me. What are their definitions of love, what are their rituals and customs?"

Rei started with the easiest. The woman who had stayed under-water for at least 15 minutes. Now that she was back up, she could see, that the water-breather was too tall for a mercurian, so she started explaining the neptunian culture and went from there once around the entire pool.

When she was done the blonde was obviously pleased. She had made a few errors, mistaking a tall, brunette Uranian for a Jovian, and Neptunian teen for a Mercurian adult, but the Venusian forgave her. The place was dimly lit after all. All in all there had been 2 mercurians, one venusian (sitting right next to her, but she didn't really count and Rei didn't have a lot to say about them anyway), 3 lunarians, one martian (herself, but she wasn't allowed to say about her culture anyway), 1 jovian, 1 uranian, and 2 neptunians.

"Good, now to today's lesson. I want you to stay here and watch me, for now."

Rei nodded her understanding and the blonde got up. She slowly waded over to a man a few seats away from them, who was currently relaxing and reading a book. When she stood before him she smiled, angled her head a bit to the side and crooked an eyebrow at him in question. The man looked up at her, smiled, but shook his head after a moment. She nodded and went over to the next man, who, nodded his head, when she "asked". She settled down on his lap and reached below the surface of the spring. Rei could easily guess what she was doing, since there were people moaning all around them. A moment later the girl raised her hips and scooted forward a little, before plunging back down. Both of them obviously moaned in bliss. The Venusian started rocking on his lap, gyrating her hips. It only took a few minutes, before both of them yelled their release. She stayed there a moment longer to collect herself, before she came back to Rei's side.

"Now," she said, sitting back down in her previous seat, "why did I make you watch that?"

Rei shook her head to clear the images still fresh before her mental eye away: "I don't know."

The Venusian smiled. "Am I correct if I say that you haven't slept with anyone but me?"

She blushed a bright scarlet and muttered something inaudible.

"I'll take that as a yes. I guess I should have told you about this sooner, sorry about that. You see, us Venusians don't usually do monogamy. If we do it's a sign of very deep love, as is soul-mate-deep. The thing is, I know you don't want people to talk about us sleeping with each other, so it doesn't reach any martians, and as I told you, people wont talk, because there is nothing to talk about if we're just having sex. But if you don't sleep with other people, they start thinking there's more to it, at least on your part, and then they'll talk. I know you're not really comfortable with this, so here's the deal. We'll come here every once in a while, you screw someone and that's it. It'll also give you the opportunity to practice on a male. Deal?"

Rei thought about it for a moment. When she couldn't find any fault in the other ones logic, she got up, walked over to the next-best man and mimicked what the other girl did before. He looked her over once, then smiled and nodded. She sat down on his lap and again followed the Venusians lead. Luckily she didn't have to do much, the guy way already nearly fully erect, due to the hot water and the things going on around them. So she raised her hip again, aligned him with her entrance and slowly lowered herself on him, but instead of moaning in pleasure she winced uncomfortably. It felt nothing like the other girl's fingers inside of her. Maybe it would feel better moving? She carefully started, mimicking the movements she had observed. It didn't feel better, but she couldn't change that now. This had to be done. So she picked up the pace and buried her face in the man's shoulder. A moment later the guy put his hands on her hips and started ramming inside of her from underneath. It was painful, but she made sure not to show any signs of it. At least it didn't last too long. Once she felt him getting closer, she moaned as if she were in intense pleasure and contracted her inner muscles a few times. It was enough to get him over the edge. She left as soon as his hands dropped from her hips. Rei was glad she was already in the pool, else she would probably have run off to the next best bathroom and scrubbed her entire body until her skin was as red as a well cooked lobster.

Princess Venus was waiting, where she had left her. The blonde didn't say anything when she got back, although Rei was sure she knew of her discomfort. They just sat there in silence for a while longer. At some point the Venusian had put her hand on her lower back and started moving it in little circles, but Rei only noticed it several minutes later. They left shortly after.

"Maybe next time, you should take a woman," the blonde said just before they parted ways to go to their respective beds.

"I can't," came the unhappy answer, "not in public."

The blonde nodded, understanding, they'd make these trips as seldom as possible.

While it stopped being painful to be with a man for Rei after a few tries, it was still far from pleasurable, but she got a lot better at faking it. Their third trip to the springs left no doubt in anybody's mind that she was thoroughly enjoying herself, except for her blonde friend. Princess Venus knew Rei far too well, to fall for her acting, as good as it might be, so on their way back she proposed: "I talked to one of my brothers. He would be willing to let himself be seen leaving your quarters and drop a few 'hints'. That way we wont have to go out as often. Is that ok with you?"

The Martian thought about it for a moment, then nodded her okay. "When will be the next time?"

"In about two weeks, I guess. We'll go somewhere else then."

She nodded again, while the blonde studied her carefully. When they reached the Venusian's room, she said: "You look about ready to snap any moment, as tense as you are. Come on, I`ll give you a massage."

Rei had not expected that, but her objections went unheard and later she had to admit that it was a great idea.

She was lying naked on her front on the bed, Princess Venus next to her. The massage had left her relaxed and now she enjoyed the blonde gently stroking her uncovered back.

When the other suddenly went from caressing her back to kissing and nipping at it, she issued a low chuckle: "Well, someone is horny..."

"So, you gonna do something against it?" the Venusian asked with a cocky grin.

Rei grinned, too, sat up and captured the blonde's lips in a deep kiss.

The moment they started fighting for dominance, her instincts kicked in. It happened every time, that was just normal for a martian, but never like this. Of course she liked her friend,but she had never triggered this kind of response before. Rei's usual control of her emotions was overcome by a wave of searing _need_.

She had pinned the venusian Princess to the bed, holding both of her hands in one of her own over the blonde's head, before either of them knew what happened. Rei couldn't think, only act. She started grinding her pelvis to the one underneath her, touching and kissing every bit of flesh she could reach. As soon as the Venusian was moaning in utter want, she pushed a hand between their clutching bodies. But instead of diving right into the blondes hot centre, she started gently fondling and teasing it, still keeping up the rocking motions of her body. She stroked up and down along the outer lips, maddeningly slowly. The blonde bucked her hips over and over, begging her to continue, but Rei ignored her for several minutes, until she finally pushed in deeper, gathering some of the the over-flowing nectar with a single finger and spreading it everywhere she could reach. The blonde screamed in need. She was _so close_. Every time Rei was about to touch the Princess's clit she pulled back at the last moment, before going back a few seconds later. The screams stopped, instead the blonde was reduced to blabbering mass, begging for release. Finally Rei gave in and delivered a few strong rubs to the quivering, hard nub. She held the other girl for several minutes, while she thrashed around, uncountable orgasms crashing through her, before the blonde ultimately went limp, her eyes unseeing and her breathing as laboured as if she had just finished a marathon in record time. As soon as she stilled, the Martian let her go, crawled down, between her legs and started licking. There was no need to restrain her anymore, the Venusian didn't even have enough strength left to raise her head. She wasn't done jet. She teased the blondes folds with her tongue, sometimes plunging it all the way into her, then retreating, until only the very tip remained in contact. It didn't take long before the other was close to orgasm again, but Rei denied it to her for as long as humanly possible, over and over again, until the Princess of Love finally fell unconscious. The Martian didn't know how often she came herself. It didn't matter. She felt nothing but content. Still her instincts urged her to do one last thing, before she, too, could give in to exhaustion. She pulled a little red tie she often used at home to keep her hair away from the fire from her discarded clothes and wrapped it around the blonde's wrist, before finally succumbing to sleep.

When Rei woke up the next morning, she was confused. She felt _good_. But she hated mornings! Most of all those mornings, after she spent the majority of the previous night with one of the Venusians "lessons", and her exhausted body was telling her very clearly that this was one of _those_ mornings. Her musings were interrupted by movements of the warm form next to her. Rei instantly turned into a statue. Her insides froze. There, on the blondes wrist, draped over her body, was her red hair-tie. The last night came rushing back to her. _NO! _She sat up with a start, waking the sleeping beauty in the process.

"Shit!"

"Wha..?"

"Shit! Shit! Shit! SHIT!" Rei swore. This wasn't true, it couldn't be!

"What happened, Mars?"

It couldn't be! If anyone knew of this... "Mars!"

She snapped around to face the worried venusian next to her.

"Venus, listen! You have to promise! No! You have to swear! Right now!"

"Wha-what?"

"Last night!"

"Okaaayyy, last night...so? I mean, yeah, it was amazing, but what about it are you so agitated about?" The blonde asked. She obviously wasn't following her friend.

"All of it! You have to swear! Swear to me that you will tell no-one it happened! Not your mother, not your sister, no-one"

She looked at the Martian funnily: "Mars, are you alright?"

"No! You have to swear!"

"ok, ok, I swear. No-one will know of it! Now tell me what's going on!" she demanded to know.

Rei was obviously relieved. "Thank you. I'm sorry, I can't tell you anything about it, just that it should never have happened."

"Why?"

"It's forbidden!"

"To do it or to talk about it'?"

"Both!"

"Why?"

"Venus! I just said I couldn't tell you about it!"

"I got that! I'm not that blonde!" said girl snapped. "What I want to know is why you can't tell me. Why is it forbidden?"

Rei sighed. This was not going to be easy. "I can't tell you," she started slowly, "because martians are secretive about this. Don't ask me why, I don't know either," she quickly added, before the Venusian could open her mouth. "If anybody knew this happened or thought I told you about this, things would get ugly for both of us. Please. It's not that I don't want to tell you- I think this secrecy is stupid, too, but I can't!"

The blonde looked a bit hurt, but nodded anyway. She wouldn't probe anymore for now.

"Listen," Rei started again, "It's not that I don't trust you, because I do, it's just..." She silently pleaded her friend for understanding.

"You do?" she asked, now happier. "Really?

"Yes!" And the Martian did, really! "I'll prove it to you!" And before the blonde could object and say that her word was enough, she continued: "My name is Rei."

Princess Venus was speechless. She hadn't expected this. It was quite a big thing for one royal to tell someone their given name.

"I'm Minako," she answered. Although protocol called for something else in this situation, she found it best to reward trust with trust in return.

Both of them smiled at each other.

"So, what now?" Minako finally asked after a moment of comfortable silence.

Rei thought about it for a while, her glum mood reappearing. "Now, it may never happen again." She sharply looked at her friend. "If I am ever like that again, like last evening, you have to say 'No!' and I'll stop right away. I promise! It wont happen again..." The last part was more of a promise to herself than to the blonde next to her and she obviously didn't expect any kind of answer either.

And that was that.

Ever since then Rei's instincts were running amok. Of course the two of them still had sex, nearly every day, but she was never fully sated. As masterly as the blonde was, she could only satisfy her body's immediate needs, not her instincts. Just a week later it was enough for Rei to look at Minako to feel the deep urge to simply jump and take her on the spot.

Somehow she managed to control herself for an entire month before she cracked. And that damn blonde didn't do anything to stop her!

Yeah, she did put up a bit of a fight, her pride as a Princess of Venus just wouldn't allow her to be dominated like that without even trying to do something about it, but instead of telling her off, Rei only god a strangled, moaned: "Yes!"

Once the Venusian was unconscious form numerous releases and her own instincts fulfilled, Rei took the red bow out of the other's hair and once again tied it around her wrist. The Venusian had declined to give it back to her, without hearing an explanation, and since she wouldn't get one, she wore it in her hair every day.

When they woke up the next morning Rei started again with her lament, starting with : This shouldn't have happened!", over: "You can't tell anyone!", to: "This may never happen again!".

It did.

Again and again, in increasingly shorter intervals.

The entire time everything else went on just like before. They had their classes, went "out" and every now and then one of their lessons would remain one-sided and Minako would spent her nights with someone else.

In the beginning the Martian had only found that weird and maybe a bit irritating, but by now she was just about ready to kill anyone who dared to lay hand on the blonde.

Then the annual ball, this time on Venus, came around.


End file.
